First-year PhD Astrophysics Reading Group, 2007 version

Astrophysics is a huge and diverse discipline. Nevertheless,
there is a body of knowledge, ideas and jargon that should
really be familiar to everyone, whatever their detailed
field of research. In the space of a 3-year PhD, getting
to grips with this material is not easy, but it is important
to get at least some feel for the basics early on.

Therefore, we will be having a crash course that attempts
to get through the most important topics in a concentrated
burst at the start of the PhD. The idea is that the first-year
students plus moderator(s) will meet regularly to discuss
the material on the reading list below. This is like the
fabled Kamikaze system, in that the sessions will be
interactive discussions - no sitting back and passively
absorbing (or not) lectures. In order to stimulate this
attitude of engagement, there will be a weekly problem
for which everyone should hand in a written answer.

However, the difference is that complete mastery
of all the details is not expected. This is the
real world: the material is out there, and professional
astrophysicists have to develop a working familiarity
with it - often in far less time than would be ideal.
At the most basic level, this means being
able to decode the jargon. With luck, the ideas will
be sufficiently exciting that readers will be motivated
to dig into the details of some derivations. In coming
together and talking over the material, it should be
possible to share these insights. The main thing is
to cover the territory as thoroughly as possible given
the limited time (as a guide, it is envisaged that
all preparation for the groups should not take a
majority of your time - say up to 1 working day
total per tutorial). This will at least provide an
introduction to some of the more useful textbooks,
and lay the foundation for more detailed specialized
study.

Times:

In previous years, the group met twice per week for one term.
In response to customer feedback, this has now been changed
to once per week for two terms. Unless otherwise
announced, the default time will be 10-11 a.m. on Thursdays.

Place:

The ROE lecture theatre, which should normally be free.
In cases where this is in use (e.g. the ROE
conference on Oct 25), the ROE common room is
the backup location.

Texts

Avalable in reference section of ROE library. Please xerox the
relevant bit and leave the book for others to use.
There are plenty of alternatives; reading these as
well is not forbidden.....

Hand-in questions

It is easy enough to convince yourself that you understand a piece of reading,
but the acid test is to use the material. Therefore, so that
everyone can gauge for themselves whether the reading is sinking in,
there will be a series of questions associated
with the group, at a frequency of roughly one per week.
These were originally classed as "hand-in" to
force people to try them; but this is a bit artificial,
since they are not marked. We therefore have an honour system,
where students are expected to make an independent
effort to produce a full written solution to the problem that goes with a given piece of
reading. Possibly you will fail - in which case come to the
tutorial with some relevant points in mind that you want
to see clarified. If you still can't do the problem afterwards,
even after some discussion with other students, you should
bring your partial solution to the relevant tutor and ask for advice. But
most of the time, the problems should get solved
without the need for formal scrutiny.